A cracked pipe or blocked drain can zap a lot of money from your pocket. Living in Sydney isn’t cheap, and you need to be able to save where you can, but can you really afford to choose the cheaper option when it comes to your plumbing? Is pipe relining the magic money saver?

Replacing a cracked or broken pipe can be an extremely expensive job. Unlike pipe relining, when you replace a pipe, you end up paying for three different things instead of just the one job.

The first thing you pay for is the pipe itself. Good quality pipes will set you back a fair bit – you don’t want to have to repeat this process in a year or two, so you need to choose strong and reliable pipes.

The second thing you pay for is the labour and time of the plumber. Pipe relining is a job that can be completed in a couple of hours, but replacing a pipe can take days. First they need to dig a trench to get to the old pipe, then they need to get that pipe out, and install the new one. It might sound simple when it’s put that way, but if you’re replacing a big section, or it’s in a tricky position, like under lots of concrete, it’s far from simple. The longer your plumber has to work, the more you’ll have to pay.

Finally, once the new pipe is in position and the plumber’s headed home for his tea, you’re left with a bombsite. That lawn you spent hours keeping tidy and weed-free is now a muddy trench. Or maybe that bathroom you spent every weekend for the last five years renovating is now covered in dust, dirt, and there’s big ugly plaster job in the centre of one of the walls. Now you get to pay for getting all that fixed up.

Pipe relining is simple, and much cheaper

Pipe relining is far cheaper than replacing pipes because you don’t have to go through the costly procedure of digging up or getting to pipes. Often the plumber only needs an access point before they can get ready with their relining tools. When you reline a pipe, it’s just like getting a new top-of-the-range pipe put in, but without the cost and the headaches.